José — page 121: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

114 | JOSE. the Indians, where the old gentleman found his last © rest.” The girl gazed down at her feet for some time. “Tell me, Hattie,” she began at last; “how do you contrive to live here, or rather how can people make up their minds to immure themselves in this soli- tude, without feeling a strong desire to die? I fan- cied I had a pretty good conception of what I might expect, when I set out on my journey here, but never realized until we began to cross the plains and the same, interminable desert stretched out around us’ day after day, how completely isolated from all the world they must be who make their home here.” The housekeeper regarded the young lady with a look of infinite sympathy. “You are about right, miss,” she replied; “about right! Tell me your name.” “Mary Brown. You surely know my father.” ~The old woman nodded in a mannez which indi- cated that she was now MATa Sana informed on all matters. “TI felt just as you do when [I first came here; when the Indians gave us trouble every day, and finally when matters improved, the young gentle- man, for whom I always had a sort of motherly feeling, left us to go to California,” she continued; “but goodness knows! one gets accustomed to many things, and how much easier it will be for you, Miss Mary, since you are surrounded by all that is dear to you.” The young lady looked up as if to speak, but checked herself. “What do you mean by saying, ‘all that is dear to me?’ ” she asked after a pause, gazing at the floor. Gomicbooks.co m